Photo adventures and travels with pro photographer Bill Hatcher.

photo/technology

January 15, 2015

This past week, like millions around the world, I spent hours following Tommy and Kevin's free ascent of the Dawn Wall in the media. The buzz surrounding the ascent was remarkable to watch unfold in real time. Both climbers were on Twitter posting messages and photos from the wall during their ascent. These were soon picked up by traditional media outlets and it wasn't long before TV and mainstream media including, the New York Times, ABC, NBC, the Guardian and others set up operations in El Cap meadows. There was even streaming video. It was great to watch such a worthy rock climbing ascent unfolding live and to know that the climb captivated and inspired both climbers and non-climbers around the world.

Back in 1988 I spent a month and a half documenting Todd Skinner and Paul Piana's free ascent of the Salathe, the first route to be freed on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, I was the only media on the wall covering their ascent. There was no

media in the meadows covering the ascent, no iPhone or social media (since they didn't exist at the time), there was me and friends on the valley floor watching the climbers progress and giving them a nightly radio call with a weather report. Initially the first reports about the successful free ascent was word of

June 09, 2014

It's 4:41 am and two bike riders are moving through a cactus maze in the Sonoran Desert.

Dawn is starting to color the sky and I have my camera 20 feet up on a portable camera stand. There's no wind, but I have the stand stabilized by several ropes. The setup is stable enough for a sharp 25 second exposure as the mountain bikers ride through the scene. I do a few takes then move to the next location, the shoot is wrapped by 6:15 and we are off to Hotel Congress for breakfast at the Cup.

June 02, 2014

This week I returned to Saguaro National Park to rephotographed one of the cooler looking saguaro I had photographed last month. Here's a select from this recent shoot. I nearly always publish color images, but after looking at the color image on my home computer I thought the white flower and the cool lines of the saguaro ribs might have more punch if I converted it to Black and White in Photoshop.

But I am in a quandary here because I didn't originally shoot this image in Black and White and when I shot the image I was intent on a shooting a color image. So the question I ask myself is shouldn't this image remain in the original color?

I've often written and promoted the idea that in wildlife, landscape and news photography the photos should be kept as true to the original moment as possible. This means no excessive photoshop or editing to remove items other than dust from the photo. This concept is really just for images whose intention is to depict a real scene. Of course for creative sake an image can be manipulated to the extreme if the intention is to create an art work. I guess that's the threshold I crossed when converting this color image to Black and White. What do you think, did the Black and White alteration I made change the original intent of this photo? My answer is probably not by much, but it is a very different photo from the original.

That got me to thinking that most news photographers publishing black and white images are usually shooting in color with digital cameras then converting the image to Black and White for publication. This is the case with many landscape and wildlife photographers as well. The reason many still produce images in Black and White is not only a style choice, but the fact that a photo in Black and White will often depict a subject with more power and emotion than a color image. Is this kind of radical alteration to a color image true to the moment? It is if the intent when the photo was shot was to make a B&W image. The difference between what I did in altering my saguaro photo and what the B&W publishing photojournalist and wildlife photographer is doing, is their original intention is seeing the final photo as Black and White.

March 04, 2013

One of the things I've learned is that you can't be too prepared for an adventure shoot. I wrote about this and looked at how a photo disaster could have been saved with a little more prep. Here's the link to that article in Australian Geographic Outdoor magazine.

July 29, 2012

I am off to the U.S. for a few weeks. My first stop is National Geographic Magazine in D.C. It's always nice to check in with my editors and others whom I work with at National Geographic. The visit is also an opportunity to reconnect, say hello as well as show some of the photography stories and projects I'vebeen involved in recently. They're a few stories to tell so I've put together a "show and tell" from the

February 19, 2012

This morning I read the specs on Nikon's new D-800 camera and went ahead and pre-ordered the camera. I have never bought a camera sight unseen, but after reading the video specs on the D-800 it looks like the camera will work perfectly for me. For the magazine work I do I have little need for a 36 mp camera, but the D-800 will work double duty as a back up to my Nikon D-3s and as my main SLR video camera.

Looking at the specs my only complaint is the D-800 has a slow 4 frames per second frame rate (my

February 15, 2012

I was back in Western Australia this week on assignment for Australia Geographic magazine and I had a gear failure incident. The odd thing is is the gear was what I would consider a solid piece of equipment, my firewire 800 cable. I guess I just take simple things like computer cords for granted when I connect

November 09, 2011

I am packing now for a job next week in Western Australia. I am excited about this trip because it will be my first time in that country. Deciding what photo gear to bring for this shoot is tricky because the assignment includes a week of pedaling 400 km off pavement on trails with no support vehicle. Will I ever I do a photo assignment that was actually easy? The big challenge on this assignment is I will have to carry all my own gear. My solution is

June 20, 2011

I have heard that the eye is the window to the world, but I know it's often a camera that enables those sights to be shared. One of the things I enjoy most as a photographer is being witness to some incredible places.

Storm building in the Trango Towers, Northern Pakistan

After the high water on the lower Franklin River, Tasmania, Australia.

The wind in the Eastern Sierra Mountains, California.

Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, Canada. South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona.

June 07, 2011

I am reviewing some different techniques that I might employ for an upcoming shoot. One technique is the photo merge in Photoshop CS5. This program is often use to stitch photo together for panoramics. I've used this technique before, but never for any work I have published.

Below are some snap shots I took near my house using photo merge. Both photos use about 10-20 photos to produce the one shot. Photo merge is a really fast way to work together a collage of many photos. A more finished product would be trimmed so you wouldn't see the irregular edge. In the shot of the pipe I like how I was able to get a nice shallow depth of field with a 35 mm lens at f 1.8 on a Nikon D-300s (50mm equivalent) to produce a wide angle view. To capture this, standing where I was, with just one shot would need the coverage of a 24 mm lens and I would have had much less depth of field. I don't know if I'll use photo merge to produce photos for the shoot, but it's always fun to explore the possibilities.